About two-thirds of voters support health care and climate change packages negotiated by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Joe Manchin (DW.Va.), a new Democratic survey shows , which is about what is expected to be the signature domestic achievement of President Joe Biden.
The Navigator Research poll was conducted by Democratic firms Global Strategy Group and Exclusive to The Huffington Post, testing two halves of the $740 billion Inflation Reduction Act. One was asked how the legislation would increase revenue by imposing a minimum tax on corporations and strengthening IRS enforcement, while another asked about spending on health care and climate change mitigation.
Both questions found that roughly two-thirds of voters supported the plan, while 24 percent opposed it. The plan appears to be popular with every category of voters except Republicans, with a majority of independents, Latinos, white voters, and college-educated and non-college-educated voters supporting it.
“The broad partisan support for the Reducing Inflation Act is consistent with the steady popularity of President Biden’s economic agenda in Navigator’s tracking process,” said Bryan Bennett, consultant at Navigator Research. “Democrats in Congress and the White House should stress that this legislation will put money back in Americans’ pockets and hold corporations accountable, and call on Republicans to oppose putting campaign donors and corporations’ wealth over voter needs.” Act on . . . ”
Navigator advised Democrats to focus on what they call an “economically persuasive audience” who disapprove of Biden’s handling of the economy and support the proposed legislation. This group makes up about three in 10 Americans and includes 42 percent of independents, 42 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds, 39 percent of service members and 31 percent of white voters without a college education.
The question of how a particular piece of legislation or issue will affect voter choice is notoriously tricky, but the survey found that 50% of voters said passage of the legislation would make them more likely to vote Democrat, while 21% said This makes them less likely. Of those who were “economically persuasive,” 55 percent said it made them more likely, while only 13 percent said it made them less likely.
Overall, Biden’s approval rating in the poll is 41 percent — a figure that’s largely in line with other polls — while 57 percent of voters disapprove of his performance. He fared worse on the economic front: 60% of voters disapprove, while only 38% approve.
The online survey, conducted July 28 through August 1, polled 1,007 registered voters as well as other Latino, Black, Asian and Independent voters.
Democrats hope to pass the Senate in the next few days a package that also includes $300 billion in deficit reductions and a plan to allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices, though Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) has remained silent about legislation, and possibly sabotaging their plans.
